Full Pundit: Justin Trudeau, covered in oil

Full Pundit: Justin Trudeau, covered in oil

Behold: Substance!Justin Trudeau, writing in the National Post, comes out in favour of the CNOOC-Nexen deal “because Chinese and other foreign investors will create middle-class Canadian jobs” (and he’s all about the middle class, as we know); because “foreign investment raises productivity, and hence the living standards of Canadian families”; and because, “more fundamentally, it is in Canada’s interest to broaden and deepen our relationship with the world’s second-largest economy.”

Paul Wells, writing on his Maclean’s blog, disputes the notion that Trudeau’s stance represents some kind of historic break with his father’s politcs. Trudeau père was also China-friendly, Wells notes, and, “despite his carefully tended reputation as a haughty ascetic, highly prone to compromise in the interest of furthering long-term goals.” What’s more, Wells thinks Trudeau fils has made a pretty shrewd move. It “makes it harder for Martha Hall Findlay to pose as the spoiler who Gets The West; draws a clear distinction with the NDP, which doesn’t like the [Nexen] deal; and leaves Harper an unpalatable choice between rejecting the bid and falling into line behind a guy named Trudeau.”

We agree with the Post‘s John Ivison on the weakest link in Trudeau’s op-ed: It’s “not really good enough” for him to support oil sands development and pipelines in principle, but oppose the Northern Gateway, and leave it at that. “If a central plank of your platform is to expand trade with Asia, … it behooves you to come up with an alternative.” But in any event, Ivison concludes, “it’s certainly a [pleasant] change for Liberals to be talking about how to maximize returns from the oilsands.” He’s just not sure how it’ll play among the “kids.”

Meanwhile, Postmedia’s Andrew Coyne has some basic advice for the Liberals: “You are not going to win the next election, no matter whom you choose,” so do not choose someone on the basis that he or she can be the “next Prime Minister.” Instead, he advises, choose a proper “leader for a third party,” because (Coyne’s italics) “there is nothing wrong with being the third party” — unless, that is, you want to be a mushy centrist third party. “Defining yourselves more sharply, taking clear stands where before you might have preferred ambiguity, will inevitably mean putting some people off, inside the party and out,” says Coyne. “So be it.” That’s how you win other people over.

The roots of corruptionIn an utterly laughable column — it’s incredibly silly, and we laughed a lot — the Montreal Gazette‘s Henry Aubin suggests Quebec’s corruption problem is really just a side effect of society as whole going to hell in a handbasket: Cheating in academia and sports; corporate greed; “mass killings of strangers in public places; the rise of bullying.” No one ever ran red lights 20 years ago, did they? Of course they did not! How ridiculous even to ask! All of this may be due to declining religiosity, Aubin suggests — though he grants “Mafiosi are often churchgoers” — which is compounded by the “outsourcing” of parental roles to those notoriously amoral nannies and day care centres; a lack of role models for children, except bad sports coaches bent on winning at all costs; “television, the Internet and video games”; and “a decreasing sense of community” (“teenagers spray graffiti on others’ property”!). For the sake of argument, let’s say all these problems are uniquely acute today (which of course they aren’t). Sir, why isn’t every other city struggling with wanton corruption?

TheGlobe and Mail‘s editorialists argue that the election (by his fellow councillors) of Michael Applebaum as Mayor of Montreal, to serve out the disgraced Gérald Tremblay’s term, “serves as a corrective to baser political instincts” — especially considering the Parti Québécois’ openly xenophobic, and successful, campaign in the provincial election. He’s a groundbreaker, they say, just like Glen Murray (“first openly gay mayor of a North American city”) and Naheed Nenshi (“first Muslim mayor of a major Canadian city”). And this proves “there is much more to Quebec than any convenient stereotype.” Right. Muslim population of Calgary, according to the 2001 census: Roughly 2%. Gay population of Winnipeg: no idea, but probably not much bigger. Anglophone mother-tongue population of Montreal: 13%. The “glass ceiling” for anglos in Quebec politics is very real, not a “stereotype,” and it’s ugly.

Duly notedThe Post‘s Jonathan Kay argues that it’s “common sense” that the premier of a Canadian province, such as Nova Scotia’s Darrell Dexter, should be able to fly first class to China, so as to “facilitate [his] job performance, and to provide a working environment that serves to attract qualified candidates [to the job].” But “we have made such a fetish of egalitarianism and anti-elitism,” he complains, “that this common sense gets extinguished in self-righteous partisan indignation masquerading as taxpayer accountability” — from which indignation Dexter is currently suffering. We agree completely. But we always prefer to see the high-flyers themselves justify it to their constituents, rather than columnists. They should answer to the people, no matter how dumb the question.